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The Arctic Rain on Snow Study (AROSS) recently published a new book – What Once Was Snow: Stories of Change, Adaptation, and Resilience in the Arctic – as an exploration of what it means to live in a world where one of the Arctic’s most defining features—snow—is becoming more unpredictable. Blending storytelling with science and Indigenous Knowledge, the book chronicles the changing rhythms of Arctic life amid a warming climate, revealing both its vulnerability and resilience.
What Once Was Snow introduces readers to herders, scientists, and families across the Arctic with each chapter offering a grounded perspective on adaptation and survival in the face of environmental transformation. The book opens on Russia’s Yamal Peninsula, where a devastating 2013 rain-on-snow event trapped pastures under ice, killing thousands of reindeer and threatening the Nenets people’s nomadic way of life. From there, readers travel through Finland’s herding communities, Greenland’s sheep-farming settlements, and Alaska’s reindeer herding families, each contending with new hazards, uncertain futures, and the need for creative adaptations.
Guided by the AROSS project—a multinational collaboration among institutions in the United States, Canada, and Finland—What Once Was Snow captures a pivotal moment in Earth’s history. It presents not only the biophysical dimensions of a rapidly changing Arctic but also the cultural, economic, and inter-generational implications of these transformations. More information about the book and how to get it can be found here.
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